by Miranda Fraley-Rhodes, Ph. D.
On August 2, 1894, a Black man named C.A. McCamey (also spelled McKamey) paid $2.00 in state and county poll taxes in Knox County and saved his tax receipt. It is now in the collection of the Tennessee State Museum. This document and others like it, though small and modest in appearance, help preserve the stories of African Americans and others who worked to maintain their right to vote despite the poll taxes implemented to disenfranchise them.
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